One of the things I keep learning is that the
secret of being happy is doing things for other people.

Dick Gregory

We weaken the value of our gifts of service by
adding to
them love of praise of others, honor, or material profit.
Our goal is
simply
the love of God, without any other consideration whatsoever.
Not
only does
this unseen service
help the individual being served
and
especially the
one
serving, but it also helps people who know
nothing
of them.Seeing this act of unselfish giving, they are
encouraged
to do
little acts of kindness themselves.They
sense
that
the real
motive behind the service runs far deeper than the
service act
and are thus inspired in their own faith.

C.M.M.

It is
not the style of clothes one wears, neither the kind of automobile
one drives, nor the amount of money one has in the bank, that counts.
These mean nothing. It is simply service that measures success.

The
sweetest lives are those to duty wed,
Whose deeds, both great and small,
Are close-knit strands of unbroken thread
Where love ennobles all.
The world may sound no trumpets, ring no bells;
The book of life the shining record tells.

The
love shall chant its own beatitudes
After its own life working. A child's kiss
Set on thy sighing lips shall make thee glad;
A sick man helped by thee shall make thee strong;
Thou shalt be served thyself by every sense
Of service which thous renderest.

Often we can help each other most by leaving
each other alone;
at other times we need the
hand-grasp and the word of cheer.

Elbert Hubbard

Doing nothing for others
is the undoing of
one’s
self. We must be
purposely
kind and generous, or we miss
the
best part of existence.
The heart that goes out
of itself,
gets large and
full of
joy.This is the
great secret
of
the inner
life.We do
ourselves
the most good
doing
something for others.

Horace Mann

As a young doctor, I thought that serving life was a thing
of drama and action
and split-second judgment calls. A question of going sleepless and
riding in
ambulances and outwitting the angel of death. A role open only to
those who
have prepared themselves for years. Service was larger than ordinary
life,
and those who served were larger than life also. But I know now that
this is
only the least part of the nature of service. That service is small
and quiet and
everywhere. That far more often we serve by who we are and not what
we
know. And everyone serves whether they know it or not.
We bless the life around us far more than we realize.
Many simple, ordinary
things that we do can affect those around us in profound ways: the
unexpected
phone call, the brief touch, the willingness to listen generously, the
warm smile
or wink of recognition. All it may take to restore someone's trust
in life may be
returning a lost earring or a dropped glove.

The
motive, if you are to find inner peace, must be an outgoing motive.
Service, of course--service. Giving, not getting. Your motive
must be
good if your work is to have good effect.
The secret of life is
being of service.

Service is
the rent we pay for being. It is the very purpose of life,
and not something you do in your spare time.

Marion Wright Edelman

Always
try to serve others. Don't even call it helping, call it service
because you are benefited by that. If someone begs from you
and you give them something, you shouldn't think you are
helping them. Instead, he or she is helping you.

It is one of
the most beautiful compensations of this life
that no person can sincerely try to help another without
helping him or herself. Serve and you shall be served.
If you love and serve people, you cannot, by any hiding
or stratagem, escape the remuneration.

The
most satisfactory thing in all this earthly life is to be able to
serve
our fellow-beings—first, those who are bound to us by ties
of love, then
the wider circle of fellow-townsmen,
fellow-countrymen, or fellow-men.
To be of service is a solid
foundation for contentment in this world.

The value
of all service lies in the spirit in which you
serve and
not in the importance or magnitude of the service. Even
the lowliest task or deed is made holy, joyous,
and prosperous when it is filled with love.

Charles
Fillmore

There are those who in the name of God teach that
you must
deny yourself and seek only to serve others.God’s plan is more
beautiful than that.You were created to express the will of God.
This means that your highest dreams and aspirations are of God.
By seeking these through the ways of the Lord you automatically
do
that which is best for all others.

Bruce Gilbert

One of the
great underlying principles governing our life is
service.
Most of us have to work, but do we serve? Do we work
in a spirit of service? Do we work for Life and our fellows?
Or do we merely work for self, in order to make a living?

Henry T. Hamblin

I have faith that the
time will eventually come when employees and
employers, as well as all humankind, will recognize that they
serve themselves best when they serve others most.

B.C. Forbes

The rare individuals who unselfishly try to serve others
have an enormous advantage--they have little competition.

Andrew Carnegie

May no one who ever meets me
Have a meeting of little consequence.
May the simple fact of our meeting
Assist in the fulfillment of their wishes.
May I be a lamp
In the darkness of life,
A home for the homeless,
And a servant to the world.

If you're wondering when you should give to or serve
someone else,
I believe in doing it spontaneously, perhaps in a shared moment of
emotion. Or any time you feel like someone needs your support.
Whether you do it all the time, occasionally, or when the opportunity
arises, just do it. Reach out and give of yourself and your time.
I have seen, time and again, that happiness and enjoyment arise from
being of service in simple ways.

To serve is
beautiful, but only if it is done with
joy and a whole heart and a free mind.

Pearl S. Buck

You have not
lived a perfect day, even though you have
earned your money, unless you have done something
for someone who will never be able to repay you.

Ruth Smeltzer

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The
practice of loving kindness must find its root deep within
us. The story is told that Mohandas Gandhi once settled in a
village and at once began serving the needs of the villagers who
lived there. A friend inquired if Gandhi's objectives in
serving the poor were purely humanitarian. Gandhi replied,
"Not at all. I am here to serve no one else but myself,
to find my own self-realization through the service of these
village folk."

As Gandhi wisely
points out, even as we serve others we are working on ourselves;
every act, every word, every gesture of genuine compassion
naturally nourishes our own hearts as well. It is not a
question of who is healed first. When we attend to ourselves
with compassion and mercy, more healing is made available for
others. And when we serve others with an open and generous
heart, great healing comes to us.

Wayne
Muller

When
you make a choice to be of service to others, you gain the
courage and sense of determination that will fuel your efforts. With
a solid vision in place, you also become less concerned with your
individual fear or self-doubt and more committed to taking the actions
that will support your larger vision.

Giving
kids clothes and food is one thing, but it's much more
important to teach them that other people besides themselves
are important and that the best thing they can do with their
lives is to use them in the service of other people.

There
is a big difference between service and working for the sake of
getting something. When you serve, you are not tied to the outcome.
You are not invested in what people do as a result of what you do, or
what people think about what you are doing. You give what you have
because it makes you feel good. You give what you have
because you
know that the unique way in which you do what you do will make someone
else feel good. In situations when your service is not rewarded by
monetary or public recognition, you are not depleted or defeated.
You are encouraged to take your service to a higher level.
You are inspired to pour more love into your work.

Life
is a place of service and in that service one has to suffer a great
deal that is hard to bear, but more often to experience a great deal of
joy. But that joy can be real only if people look upon their life as
a
service, and have a definite object in life outside themselves
and their personal happiness.

Lev Tolstoy

Whatever you have
received more than others--in health, in talents, in
ability, in success, in a pleasant childhood, in harmonious conditions of
home life--all this you must not take to yourself as a matter of course.
In gratitude for your good fortune, you must remember in return
some sacrifice of your own life for another life.

Service rendered as a gift or
love-offering to Life: work that is engaged
in, not for self or for profit, but as an act of love and service, these
bring
the doer a harvest of blessings. . . . When we serve and when we give,
we open ourselves to receive life's richest blessings, its greatest
prizes, and its most enduring lessons.

Henry T. Hamblin

The
more you care about others, the more confidently you
act. There
is nothing you cannot do, no defeat you cannot
survive, no fear you
cannot overcome, when you are
concentrated heart and soul in helping
others.

Robert O'Brien

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